Contents

About Mavado

Introduced in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Mavado in many respects embodies the underworld antipode of Kano. Where as Kano seems to rely mainly on scare tactics and brute force, Mavado relies on discipline and superior intelligence to fight.[1] In battle, he uses a pair of signature grappling hooks to augment his attacks, allowing him to propel himself quickly around the arena.[1] Mavado is a leading figure, second only to Daegon, within the Red Dragon, which the games reveal to be an ancient criminal organization whose existence is known only to its members, and whose most prominent rivals are the Black Dragon, an offshoot of the Red Dragon which was led by Kano but is now reformed under the leadership of Kabal.[2] Mavado is depicted as a vicious, pitiless, and cruel crimelord.

Appearance

Mavado wears a long black cape with a red interior and silver shoulderpads. He appears to be rather tall. On the back of his cape is the Red Dragon symbol. He wears long black pants with spiked metal boots. Under his cape are grappling hooks, used for planting in the ground and striking his opponent.

Combat characteristics

Powers and abilities

Unlike the other Red and Black Dragon characters in the series, Mavado does not appear to have any supernatural powers or enhancements done to his body. Nevertheless, he is a very formidable opponent indeed. Like Kabal, Mavado fights ruthlessly while maintaining a levelled head, but appears to be much more collected in this aspect, besting him in kombat and taking his hookswords as trophies. While he is fairly good with these weapons, his personal weapon comes in the form of elastic whips with steel hooks attached to them. These whips seem to be especially sturdy, as they are able to support the body weight of an average adult male. Although he uses them to propel himself across vast distances, oddly enough, he never targets his enemies with these hooks. The soles of his shoes are equipped with retractable razor-sharp spikes, which can give him better traction, or give him the fatal edge with his attacks.

In addition to his expertise in weapons, he is also very mobile, notably when it comes to jumping. For instance, he is able to jump at a very high height in different situations such as in the Mortal Kombat X comic series. He is also able to somehow add up his strength in his physical attacks.

Signature moves

Grapple Hook Strike: Mavado catapults himself with his ropes at the opponent, kicking his opponent. (MK:DA, MK:TE, MK:A)

Change Sides Hook: Mavado uses his ropes to evade the opponent's attack by swinging to the side. (MK:DA, MK:TE, MK:A)

Low Grapple Slide: Mavado flies forward with a low kick, using a grapple hook to anchor himself. This attack causes the opponent to trip face down to the ground. (MK:A)

Escape Grapple: Mavado uses his grapple hooks to pull himself backward and out of harm's way. (MK:DA, MK:A)

Fatalities

Kick Thrust: Mavado sticks his hook claws into the ground as he stretches himself far back from his opponent. He then lifts his legs up, and as he does, a spike sticks out of each of his boots. He then releases himself and his feet hit his opponent, the spikes impaling him or her upon doing so. He then takes each foot off of his fallen victim, with one of the spikes taking an internal organ out of the victim's body. (MK:DA, MK:TE)

Character development

Mavado's name was originally going to be "Malvado", which is Spanish and Portuguese for "evil man".[3] At first, his character was going to be portrayed as a matador-type fighter, but developers felt that this look didn't fit well into the Mortal Kombat series. Since they were not pleased with this direction, Mavado's appearance was given a complete overhaul, aiming towards a darker persona.[4]

Game information

Mavado had a cameo appearance in Mortal Kombat: Deception's Konquest mode in which the player, as Shujinko, finds him looking for an assassin to work for the Red Dragon clan in Edenia.[5] The assassin would end up being Hsu Hao.[6] Mavado is also found in Orderrealm, willing to trade for red koins.[7]

Trivia

In General

Despite the Red Dragon clan being in existence before the Mortal Kombat tournament (along with their rivals the Black Dragon clan), Mavado and Hsu Hao were the first Red Dragon members to be featured in the series with the release of Deadly Alliance in 2002.

In the Deadly AllianceKrypt, he has a company called Red Dragon Ent. in which he acts as an "assassin-for-hire."

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

Has the same voice actor as Sub-Zero.

In his Wing Chun style, Mavado has a hidden attack that is not named in his move list. It is a standard spinning backfist, and is performed by hitting Back+Throw.

Mortal Kombat: Deception

He is one of the characters that appears in one of the cells in the Dark Prison stage.

He is one of the characters that can be found in the Krypt.

His corpse can be seen in the background of Kabal's alternate costume biography, having been impaled with a hooksword.

He makes an appearance in the Konquest Mode in Orderrealm and Edenia.

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon

Despite Kabal having his hookswords back, Mavado still uses the same hookswords. This was most likely done to ensure Mavado had a weapon style for the game.

While not outright revealed, it is possible that either Kabal or Mavado acquired replacement hookswords while one of them still uses Kabal's originals.

He was given an additional power-up special move called Anger Management.